FLEMINGTON — By a 3-2 vote, the Freeholders on Tuesday night, June 19, approved an $88.6 million operating budget for 2012. This is about $4 million less than the 2011 budget.

Freeholders George Melick and Will Mennen both voted against the budget, just as they’d done May 15 when the board voted to introduce the measure.

The tax levy — the amount to be raised through property taxes — will be $64,155,00, nearly $2 million less than the $66.1 million raised in 2011.

During the budget discussion, Melick once again complained about all the cars assigned to Prosecutor’s Office personnel.

“This is not right, all those cars going home,” some to “foreign counties’’ such as Mercer and Middlesex, he said. In his opinion, “there could be more savings done” in the budget.

And Mennen claimed that there are more cuts that “have not been made that we could make.”

The county tax rate is increasing a half-cent under the new budget, and the library tax rate is also likely going up by a half cent, so overall the county tax rate will increase by a penny per $100 of property value.

But Freeholder Matt Holt urged his colleagues to move away from concentrating on the rate and instead realize that the levy is down, for the fourth year in a row.

And Freeholder Ron Sworen noted that the budget was around $100 million six years ago. The issue of the prosecutor’s cars is “still being worked on,” he remarked.

Freeholder Director Rob Walton said that the value of homes and other real estate has decreased in the last few years, so even though the tax rate is rising, the bill to the typical property owner will be lower. According to his calculations, the average residential bill for county taxes will decline about $30. This includes the open space and historical preservation tax and the library levy along with the county operations. After a number of residents spoke out at a meeting earlier this year on the Freeholder’s plan to cut the open space tax, the board agreed to keep it at 3 cents per $100 of valuation.

Later in the meeting, Melick remarked that when the board consisted of only three members, less money was spent. “What do you think?” of returning to three, he asked.

“Which three?” asked somebody from the audience.

Walton countered that the four greatest rate increases in 25 years were with a three-man board. The Freeholders are paid $16,000 a year, with the director getting an extra $1,000.

Melick noted that in recent years he hasn’t taken a salary; he gets a small state pension, based on past Freeholder service as well as several part-time jobs in his home municipality of Tewksbury.